Manicure at home tips

Well. I have good news and I have bad news.

First the good news… Yes! It is entirely possible to buy a home-use UV lamp and some gel type nail polishes and do a full gelish or shellac manicure on yourself at home for a fraction of the cost (over time)! I’ve been playing with various methods and I have to say, yes. It can be done!

The bad news… Yeah, it’s probably not going to yield the same results as salon gel manicures most likely (sorry to say).

Let’s discuss this, shall we?

The fact of the matter is, it isn’t the equipment that makes a good gel manicure, it’s the manicurist. The equipment itself is fairly standard and fairly (fairly) inexpensive, and no gel polish that I’ve tried seems to be far and away better than any of the others. What it really comes down to is care and precision.

“Do you have what it takes?!?” (Said in a Rex Kwon Do voice please.)

Here is the basic HOW TO that will come with any gel product you purchase:

Step Three: Apply first coat of gel color. Dry for two minutes under lamp.

Step Four: Apply second coat of gel color. Dry for two minutes under lamp.

Step Five: Apply gel top coat. Dry for three minutes under lamp.

Step Six: Clean nail with a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol. (The top coat remains kind of waxy and sticky until this step.)

If you do decide to try the gel system at home (and, let’s be honest, in many cases it’s entirely worth it. I can get a full week’s worth out of an at-home gel manicure, as opposed to maybe three or four days max out of a normal Essie and Top Coat deal (as opposed to a solid three weeks out of a salon job)), here are 10 things to consider:

1. In my experience, the kind of lamp you purchase makes no real difference. I’ve used a Thermal Spa and a Gelish Pro-45 and both have yielded the same results. I might recommend the Thermal Spa if only because it’s bigger and can fit two hands (or feet) at once. It’s more about the number of minutes you let your fingers cure. Instructions will say 2-3 minutes between coats. I’d say three minutes three times and you’re getting somewhere.

2. The key is a really great buff job. These gels dry into a vinyl type finish, and when a home job comes off, it usually comes off in one giant nail-shaped peel. This is because your nail is oily and the gel polish will only adhere completely if you are very meticulous about it. How does it adhere so much better in a salon? I really think it has to do with buff skill. The rubbing alcohol also seems to be key. You want clean, you want rough, you want dry.

3. You know what never seems to work for me? Those base coats. They work beautifully at the salon but I just can’t get it to work at home. So, I skip it. My manicure lasts much longer when I do (why is this?).

4. Know what works even better than skipping the base coat? Using your regular nail polish and just applying the gel top coat. Don’t use the UV lamp to dry your regular polish, just let it air dry as usual. But make sure it is fully dry before applying the top coat. If it’s even the slightest bit gummy, that top coat will seal in the gummy and they will never harden.

6. Be sure to direct a lot of attention to the tips of your nails. Run the polish wand horizontally across the edge to seal in the ends. This is how you prevent chips.

7. Watch your cuticles. Don’t let the polish get thick or heavy near your cuticles because this is where the polish wants to start to peel. Think thin thin thin. As little polish as you can use is best. (This might be redundant from point five but seriously. Thin.)

8. Have I mentioned? THIN COATS.

9. It is far easier to peel an at-home gel polish off than to do the recommended five-minute soak in acetone… mostly because soaking your fingers in acetone for too long is kind of painful in a strange way. And peeling is satisfying in that elementary school-Elmer’s glue kind of way.

10. If you want to go all out on this and give it the full attempt, HERE is a link to the full CND Shellac at-home kit.